Les DeMerle -

Les DeMerle is an American jazz drummer who made the 1968 album Spectrum on United Artists. After time behind bandleader Harry James, DeMerle released the 1978 jazz-rock album Transfusion on Dobre Records. The title inspired the name of his backing act for the ensuing Transcendental Watusi, issued in 1979 on U.A. His final album, On Fire, appeared in 1982 on Palo Alto Records.

Background

Les was born Lester William DeMerle on November 4, 1946 in Brooklyn and grew up in Queens. He drummed from age eight and formed the Capitols at twelve, playing weekend high-school proms and socials over the next three years. The group also appeared on Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour and Tony Grant’s Stars of Tomorrow at Steel Pier in Atlantic City. DeMerle attended Eastern Military Academy on Long Island and studied drums in New York with Bob Livingston. He later studied harmony and music theory by correspondence with arranger Alf Clausen.

Livingston encouraged DeMerle to hear established New York jazz players, and DeMerle began sitting in with clarinetist Tony Parenti at Eddie Condon’s. He subsequently played Jimmy Ryan’s and Nick’s in Greenwich Village and led a trio at Barbara Kelly’s Hat and Cane on the Upper East Side. DeMerle also worked with trumpeter Henry “Red” Allen, clarinetists Sol Yaged and Edmond Hall, and pianist Ralph Sutton. At sixteen, he sat in with Lionel Hampton at the Metropole Cafe; Hampton subsequently used the teenager as a substitute drummer for several Atlantic City engagements.

A Metropole sit-in with Gene Krupa brought DeMerle to agent Joe Glaser, who signed the drummer to Associated Booking Agency. Glaser booked DeMerle as featured drummer with the Billy Williams Revue and placed his trio at Jazzland for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, where the bill also included Gene Krupa, Maynard Ferguson, and Carmen McRae. DeMerle also worked New York engagements with Joe Farrell and Walter Bishop Jr. as his local jazz profile expanded through the middle of the decade.

DeMerle formed Sound 67 in New York in 1967 as a five-piece group centered on trumpeter Randy Brecker. Arrangers Frank Foster, Bob Hammer, and David Sandridge wrote charts for the band, while alto saxophonists Alan Gauvin and Lanny Morgan, pianist Danny Sandridge, and bassist Terry Plumeri figured among the principal players. Glaser booked Sound 67 at Basin Street East and the Riverboat in New York and Paul’s Mall in Boston, along with tour support dates for the Toys and Jay & the Americans. DeMerle appeared with Sound 67 on The Mike Douglas Show on June 28, 1967, and the group returned for two further appearances on the program.

Sound 67 recorded ten tracks at Peer-Southern Music in New York for an Atlantic submission in 1967. Five studio numbers paired DeMerle and Brecker with alto saxophonist Alan Gauvin, pianist Danny Sandridge, and bassist Terry Plumeri. Other selections used singer Genya Ravan, alto saxophonist Lanny Morgan, pianist Mel Olman, and bassist Jack Greg. DeMerle retained the acetates after Atlantic executives declined to advance the project.

Sound 67 continued club and television work through 1968 and disbanded at the start of the following year as DeMerle accepted a Wayne Newton engagement in Las Vegas. DeMerle then planned a larger ensemble for United Artists and assembled the personnel for the sessions that became Spectrum.

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